Tragedies of War
by Ammaarah01
Summary: 'I stand in the middle of the room. The presence of death surrounds me. I shiver, but not because it's cold. I look at the covered, empty shells that shall never taste life again. These corpses are reminders that our enemies are superior to us. These corpses are reminders of the risk we are taking by participating in this war. They are reminders of the tragedies we sure to face.'


"No, NO!" I hear a scream and rush towards the source, coming from the Commons, joined by many others. I see a crowd of colours surrounding something near the pool. I couldn't push through; there were too many people.

Headmaster Ambrose walks quickly down the path with the aid of his cane. I feel a stab of worry for him; his illness has been growing worse despite all of us Theurgist's efforts.

Gamma flies near Ambrose's head, then flies above the crowd. I hear him gasp.

"Alright wizards, move along. Go back to your dorms!" Headmaster Ambrose shouts. Everyone turns at the sound of his voice and rushes away, whispering about what it is.

As the crowd thins and I come closer, I see what it was and I feel like I was going to hurl right there.

The body, which I recognised as Simeon's*****, had a snake-like creature slithering through it. The creature's head had been cut off, but it was still alive. Simeon, however, didn't have such luck.

A bang echoed through the Commons, and a burst of light shooted from a wizard's wand, and the creature was dead. I came closer, and stood next to the other wizards. I knelt down, took the creature out of Simeon's stomach and threw it away, then rested his head on my lap. Tears fell down from my eyes and landed on his face. With trembling hands, I take out my wand and prepare to do a healing spell. I knew it was useless, it wouldn't work, but I couldn't stand the thought of a dead Simeon. He was like a brother to me, and he had defended me from those bullies on my first day of school. After that we had gotten really close.

A pale hand stopped me from casting the spell. I looked up and saw the person shaking his head. I nod. My body was shaking like a leaf. _Poor Simeon. He didn't deserve to die like this. He was a great guy._

"By Bartleby! What has happened here?" Headmaster Ambrose asked. Gamma floated down and rested on his head. One wizard stepped forward.

Judging by the person's clothes, she was an Elite Diviner. Elite wizards were the best of the best, and handled the most dangerous threats. You could tell if a wizard was an Elite if they wore a hood, with a mask covering their lower face. They also have a star on their robes, mostly in the middle. You could tell what school a Elite is from by the colour of their mask. This Elite's mask was purple, signifying that she was a Diviner.

My breath caught in my throat. I've always wanted to meet one. I examine the others. Yes, they were all Elites, apart from one, who was probably the one who screamed.

"Headmaster Ambrose," She said, bowing. She points to the other Non-Elite. "This girl said she saw a burst of flame and this boy's body appeared with the creature. She tried to help the boy, but he was already dead. She managed to immobilise the creature for a while."

"Ah. What is your name?" Headmaster Ambrose asked the girl who screamed. She had tears streaming down her face. She slightly resembled Simeon.

"I-I'm Sarai. I'm his sister," She said with a trembling voice. Suddenly, she burst into tears. The Elite Diviner knelt down and whispered something to her, probably to comfort her. I looked back down at Simeon's face. My tears were coming in abundance; thick and full of sorrow.

Simeon's red hood had come off. His brown, messy, and spiky hair was wet. His face had many fresh wounds on it, and his red robe had many slashes in it. Was he recently in a fight? With who? I bite my lip. Could it be the new threat Headmaster Ambrose talked about? Simeon was a great Pyromancer. He was the top in the class! If they could defeat him...

Headmaster Ambrose spoke, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Do you know anything else? A message perhaps?" He looks at the Elites, who look at each other.

One of them, which wore a white mask, stepped forward with a note.

"We found this stuck to his chest," He said.

Headmaster Ambrose examined the note for a while, his face turning grave, then looked up. He gave me a surprised look, as if he just realised I was there.

"What are you doing here? This a matter for I and these Elites," He looked at the crying Sarai, then at me. "Both of you must leave now! Go to your dorms! Why are you here?" He sounded slightly angry.

"I- Forgive me, Headmaster Ambrose. I wanted to see what happened. Simeon is a friend of mine and-" I say, quietly, before I was cut off.

"All Theurgists have friends, most of them aren't even close. Go. You have no excuse to be here, unlike Sarai," A girl, who wore a red mask, interrupts me. I glare at her. I absolutely _hate_ it when people go on about stereotypes of certain schools.

"I _am_ close to him!' I say, gritting my teeth. "We've known each other for a long time!" The girl just scoffs and rolls her eyes.

"Well, I'm not leaving. This concerns my brother! And she's not leaving either!" Sarai says stubbornly. The Elite Pyromancer shakes her head and grumbles impatiently.

Headmaster Ambrose sighs. He strokes his beard. He sighs again. "Let the young wizards stay. It will soon be revealed to everyone who is the cause of this," He gestures to Simeon's body.

He takes the paper out again and examines it, his frown deepening as his eyes go down the paper. The Elites look at each other questioningly, then at Headmaster Ambrose. I stay sitting down, stroking Simeon's hair. Sarai was sitting next to me, gazing into the distance. The Commons was silent. I didn't like it.

Eventually, Headmaster Ambrose showed us the piece of paper which he had hidden under his robe. It seemed to have a letter on it. At the end, after the letter was signed, there was a short message in something that looked disturbingly like blood. The letter said:

_Dear Sir or Madame,_

The writing underneath was hard to see as it was covered by some strange black substance. You could barely see the signature.

_-Taryn NightBane_

Whoever this Taryn is seemed to have a lot of courage to write a letter to an unknown enemy. I briefly wondered if Simeon was forced to do it or chose to.

The writing underneath, that seemed to be in blood, chilled me to the core.

_ No one can save you. We will come to get you, wizards! Many will follow..._

I look up at Headmaster Ambrose. It dawned on me that he probably knew about this war situation. Headmaster Ambrose's face was contorted in anger.

"Headmaster Ambrose, what does this mean?" Sarai asks. He looks at her, then at Simeon, then at me, then at the Elites in front of him.

"It means that right now, we will be at war!"


End file.
